Gwyneth Paltrow and Brad Falchuk talk sex and intimacy issues with expert during home confinement

The Faltrows, married since 2018, did a video session with intimacy teacher Michaela Boehm that was recorded for Paltrow’s lifestyle website, Goop. In the nearly hour-long session, they talked about coping as a couple while staying home 24/7 for an extended period in a stressful time amid the pandemic— all the while caring for children, pets and conducting business.

Brad Falchuk and Gwyneth Paltrow talked with an intimacy expert as they quarantine ... with kids. (Screenshot: Goop/YouTube)

While Boehm talked about how things are topsy-turvy for couples, who usually experience each other in “small doses” each day because people have multifaceted lives, and offered tips for connecting, the couple gave glimpses into their own relationship.

For instance, when Boehm offered tips for being able to tell if one partner is exhibiting stress, Falchuk interjected, “It’s pretty easy with Gwyneth. You know [when she is stressed],” which Paltrow responded to with laughter.

They talked about their quarantine situation — at home with her children with ex Chris Martin: Apple, almost 16, and Moses, 13.

“We’re lucky that we have a really solid relationship,” the bespectacled actress said, “but we’re also in the house, with the kids and it’s pretty close quarters,” despite her L.A. home being described by Variety as a “sprawling” estate. “We all feel — especially my teenagers right now — are really feeling very penned in, especially Apple who is a very social creature. We’re really following all of the strict guidelines so she’s not able to see people who she wants to see and it gets fractious in moments and there’s definitely tension within the household. And we have the added dynamic of stepparent... Where do you go as a couple when you’re all in the house and you’ve got dogs and you’re trying to work from home. What are you supposed to do?”

Boehm said that nobody has invented solutions for teenagers yet, talking instead about what couples could do. Soon, the conversation turned to sex during the quarantine. Boehm talked about how some people want to have a lot of sex in this type of crisis while others turn to other things for comfort — such as food.

Paltrow asked what Boehm was telling her clients who are being “resistant to intimacy.” Boehm suggested keeping it simple by offering hugs, holding each other and exhibiting a “generosity of spirit” toward a partner. In other words — be extra kind.

That led Paltrow to ask a question for a “friend” who doesn’t want to have sex during this stressful time and asked for tips for women to “get back in touch with their sexuality.” Boehm talked about the female body, when under stress, “goes into the survival mode... Food and comfort and sweets ... upping of the body fat; are the things most women are reporting they want to do. They don't want so much pleasure because that feeling of opening to pleasure is, of course, opening to all other sorts of emotions.”

Boehm said that in a few weeks, as the stress level comes down, desire will come back naturally. To give it a boost, engagement with the senses — taste, touch, smell — will stimulate it. That can be done by practicing self-care, getting dressed instead of wearing pajamas, putting on makeup and having a nice cup of tea to “counteract” negative feelings.

Falchuk, a writer and producer, actually asked most of the questions. The segment ended with Boehm suggesting couples try a five-minute exercise — during which they hug and dance in order to “connect body to body and move together.” However, if the famous pair did it, they do so off-camera.

Paltrow has been sharing some behind the scenes of her quarantine — mostly the cookbook author making meals.

The couple also walked to a local farmer’s market with Paltrow wearing a mask and gloves.

Paltrow and Falchuk married at her Hamptons, N.Y., home in 2018. The couple infamously didn’t move in together until a year later, citing the need to mindfully blend their families, as he has two children from a previous marriage as well.